Our final turnaround day of the winter season was easy and fun and even held a surprise for us. Unlike our most recent turnaround day, with its deep cleaning of the ship and delayed boarding coupled with overcast skies and wind, today was much smoother AND sunny. Yay!
We adhered to our commitment to avoid food until sometime next week...at least this morning. We went to the international Cafe for coffee around 8am and were amazed by how empty the ship already appeared. There were apparently a lot of passengers on the 4-night cruise traveling with just carry on bags who chose to walk off the ship as soon as it was cleared this morning. The Passenger Services Desk kept making announcements: disembarkation was running 15 minutes ahead...30 minutes...45 minutes. That's not something we hear very often. About 9:30am, we walked off the ship and right through immigration in the terminal; there was no wait at all. Nice!
We set out to walk down to Publix for the first time this winter. Our waiter Marian had told us that there was a new TJ Maxx that has opened since last year, and there it was, right next to Publix. The crew is loving it, as it's even easier to get to than Ross Dress for Less which requires crossing 17th Street. We then caught a Sun Trolley down to Fort Lauderdale Beach, and what a difference four days makes. The beach was busy today, and the sidewalks on Ocean Blvd. were filled with tourists. I know that it's a far cry from Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale 35 years ago, but it is apparently still a popular destination. We sat in front of two of the dancers from the Caribbean Princess on our trolley ride. She is from the UK and he is from Ukraine, and we found out that this is their last cruise on the Caribbean Princess and the entire production cast is transferring to the Sapphire Princess, flying out Saturday night to meet the ship in Asia. Apparently, they move as a team between the Diamond, Sapphire and Caribbean Princess, and another cast moves between the Grand, Golden and Star Princess. The new cast for the Caribbean Princess is on the ship this cruise, along with their choreographer, getting the costumes fitted and doing some on-ship practicing of the production shows, just as we saw last winter on the Emerald Princess.
We got off the Sun Trolley at Sunrise Blvd. and started to walk south along the beach. As we walked, I was thinking about how many beaches we'd walked on in the just the past two months: Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Waikiki Beach on Oahu and Kaanapali Beach on Maui, Loreto and Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, Cozumel and Grand Turk. We will have so many wonderful memories from our winter!!
At the same time I was thinking about this, we saw a couple walking in front of us. I looked...and looked again. "Is that who I think it is?", I asked G. He said he was thinking the same thing. We caught up with them and couldn't believe it. It was Nadia from Ottawa and Ken from the UK who were #2 MTP on the Pacific Princess on the December 8th cruise. There! On the beach in Fort Lauderdale! Big hugs, and we said we guessed they were joining the Caribbean Princess today. As it turns out, no. They were simply staying in Fort Lauderdale for a couple of weeks. We just happened to run into each other less than three months after our mutual French Polynesian cruise on busy Fort Lauderdale Beach. Just like meeting the passengers on our first Caribbean Princess cruise who had sailed into Papeete on the Oceania Marina on January 4th, the odds of meeting Nadia and Ken today were millions to one.
The architecture of this building along Ocean Blvd. intrigued me. It looked like it was curving up, when it obviously is not.
Fort Lauderdale Beach
G and I eventually continued on our way, walking quite a bit further south along Ocean Blvd and then walking back a block from the water. It was after 12:30pm by then, and, when we saw a Sun Trolley approaching, we decided to go back to the ship for our last embarkation day lunch in the dining room. In another 'Caribbean Princess moment', we discovered, once back on the ship, that the dining room was not open for lunch today, despite the fact that our in transit letter had said it would be. We walked up to the Horizon Court Buffet instead, the worst idea of the day, especially on a Code Red embarkation day, as the line of passengers waiting to get their food on both sides stretched through the buffet and the length of the Calypso Pool. Not a fan of the buffet on a good day, there was no way I wanted to stand in that line. Instead we went to the Trident Grill for cheeseburgers, and took them back to the Terrace Deck. It was less crazy back there, and was cool in the shade, and we stayed there until muster drill. I think finding occasional moments of peace will be essential to my survival on this cruise.
Muster drill is my favorite embarkation day shower time, as there is no escaping that long announcement. We were ready for dinner and out on the Terrace Deck for our last beautiful sailaway of the winter. We popped the cork on a bottle of Barefoot Bubbly and toasted another great winter at sea. I finally ate healthily at dinner (and it felt so good): fruit and salad and salmon and no dessert. Go me! We were in the Princess Theater at 7:30pm for the Welcome Aboard show featuring comedian Troy Thirdgill. Sure, we had just seen him two cruises ago; but his is a great show, and I think he was even funnier tonight.
And that's it for us tonight. We are tucked away in our cabin, listening to the shouts and squeals and door slamming from fellow passengers in nearby cabins. These are apparently students at the University of Florida, which is on Spring Break this week. The bar staff already knows they're going to have a heck of a time this week attempting to keep alcohol out of the hands of the under 21-year olds. Something tells me this is going to be a really crazy cruise and I'm grateful for the ear plugs I always travel with.
Pray for us. ;-)